Butterfly Kisses

This song popped up on my Pandora music list one day, and since then it's enjoyed steady rotation in my iTunes player. Butterfly Kisses is a song that a father wrote about her daughter. It's a touching song (that isn't sappy) about the special bond that a dad and her little girl shares. Each stanza is actually the dad talking about special moments in his daughter's life: toddlerhood, Sweet 16 (or debut in Philippine context), then her wedding; and how he feels like he's on the top of the world as he sees his little girl grow up.

I'm not even married yet and already I'm looking forward to having kids. Although I want to have a boy as my first child (don't ask me why), I'm looking forward to a Little Miss Sunshine for my second.

The stream is actually Westlife's rerecording of the song. I have to admit they did a nice rendition of the song. Trust me. Even if you're not a big fan of the Irish boyband, you'll appreciate Butterfly Kisses. (I'll go on record by saying I'm one of the very few straight male Westlife ex-fans--I mean I still don't mind listening to them, I just don't go out of my way to buy their albums and stuff anymore.)

Survey, Schmurvey

While I catch my breath from my recent New York trip (I was out and about in the city in the middle of the heatwave last week!), I'd like to put a lighthearted post.

In my work as a journalist/editor, I have interviewed a number of people who've offered very interesting responses to what I originally thought to be rather mundane questions. (Yeah, even I get brain farts.) When I was designing my first website (now down because I let the domain expire. Boo) I didn't put a list of my favorites in the requisite "About Me" page. You know what I mean--the stuff that you add in your Facebook or MySpace profile. Instead, I answered questions magazine editors ask celebrities, as if they were being directed to me.

Mariel Chua, a colleague of mine now based in NYC, posted one such spin, and if she may indulge me, I'd answer the same questions. The original recipient of the questions was Narciso Rodriguez, and his responses are italicized.

Other than yourself, who is your favorite designer? [I'm not a designer, and I don't really like Narciso Rodriguez's style. So I'm just gonna answer the question minus the disclaimer]
Cristóbal Balenciaga
Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana

If you could come back as a model, who would you be?
Violeta Sánchez
Mr. Tyson Ballou. My favorite male model.

What's your favorite color?
Blue
I'd like to think it's green. But I don't really know. I don't quite like blue, tell you the truth.

What are you most vain about?
My weight
My weight.

What are you most shy about?
Too shy to say.
My thighs. Hahaha!

If you could have somebody else's body, whose would it be?
Evandro Soldati's.
Tyson Ballou's.

Who are you fantasy dinner party guests?
Louis Armstrong, Coco Chanel, Lee Miller, James Franco, Anaïs Nin, Romy Schneider, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Alain Delon, Abraham Lincoln, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, George Sand, and Amy Winehouse.
I honestly, honestly do not know who to invite.

Where is your favorite place to have a drink?
Angel's Share, East Village, NYC.
At home: It's cheap, and no one has to drive.

What's your underwear of choice?
Zimmerli.
Boxer-style briefs. I just started liking 'em.

What's the last book you read?
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart.
Buddha Mind, Buddha Body: Walking Toward Enlightenment by Thich Nhat Hanh. I'm not yet done, though.

Do you have any pets?
Yes, three dogs, named Lucky, John, and Clifford
No.

What do you eat for breakfast?
Coffee, protein shake, egg whites.
A heaping bowl of Post Selects Banana Nut Crunch, with 2% Reduced-Fat milk

At age seven, you wanted to be:
A monk.
A painter. But not the painter that we know Da Vinci, Picasso, Giotto, and Michelangelo. I meant real house painter. As in with the wide brush and denim overalls.

What is one thing you find easiest to forgive?
A mistake.
An honest mistake. - I agree.

What is one thing you find impossible to forgive?
Dishonesty.
I have no idea.

Do you have any supertitions?
Many.
None. I don't believe in them.

What's your biggest self-indulgence?
Ice cream.
Chocolates.

Favorite place to shop?
Ted Muehling Store on Howard Street, NYC.
I love a lot of places. I go to H&M for great deals on trendy things; Zara for well-made and awesome-fitting shirts and suit separates; Old Navy for basics (my latest triumph: $0.97 for a thermal); Macy's for random things; Target for supplies; BJ's or Costco for magazines I'm not subscribed to (30% off!); Borders for books and hard-to-find magazines (only because I'm a Borders Rewards member, otherwise Barnes and Borders are both fine); and Cherry Hill mall because they have an awesome selection of stores.

Whose wallet would you like to steal?
No one's.
Steve Jobs's

Whose diary would you most like to read?
George W. Bush's.
Katie Holmes. Just so I know that Tom Cruise really is from the planet Zorg.

If you were an inventor, what would you invent?
A time machine.
A brainwave magnifying machine. You can either be a telekinetic or a telepath, depending on how the machine's wired.

Who is your favorite furniture designer?
Poul Kjaerholm.
*shrug*

What's your favorite car?
1967 Porsche 911.
A car that's 35 mpg on the highway.

What was your childhood nickname?
"Cisito," diminutive of "Ciso" (my father), diminutive of "Narciso" (my grandfather).
Patchoy, because I was skinny. (Patpating Tsinoy, get it?)

When and where are you happiest?
The holidays at my home in Brazil.
Christmas time.

Who is your best friend?
Annick.
Don't have one. I used to think everyone should have one, but I now I know better. Why make the distinction between friends and "best" friends? I have a lot of good friends that I love to hang out with and talk about anything and everything, but it's not like I love them any more than my other friends. Once I consider you my friend, you have my loyalty.

What is your worst enemy?
Cigarettes.
Self-doubt.

What piece of art would you most like to own?
Gerhard Richter's 439.
Madonna of the Rocks. Only because I like how it's composed. And because it's the only other painting I recall seeing in the Da Vinci Code flick that isn't the Mona Lisa.

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Bahia, Brazil.
Palawan or Boracay. I haven't been around much, so this will definitely--or at least, might--change.

Who is your favorite fictional character?
Cartman on South Park.
Ryu of Street Fighter fame.

What is your most treasured possession?
A handwritten letter from a late friend.
My fashion portfolio because it's a collection of my 4 years in the publishing industry. All the blood, sweat, and tears I put into becoming a fashion editor is there. I know, I know, babaw, but that portfolio is--and will--be my ticket to cracking the publishing business here.

Your favorite band/musician/song?
Radiohead.
Song: City of Blinding Lights by U2, for now.

If you weren't a designer [editor] what yould you be?
An architect.
Web designer or developer. It's not too far from the trifecta of career paths I have: technology, magazines, and fashion.

What current trend would you like to see disappear?
Grotesque accessories.
Skinny anything. Thank god skinny jeans are already passé.

What's your biggest fashion regret?
A mullet.
Dressing to fit in, and not to express my personality. Remember the time when elephant pants were the in thing? Yeah, I had to beg my mother to buy me one in the name of conformity. Heh.

Favorite trend of all time?
Jeans.
Jeans-and-blazer combo.

Worst trend of all time?
Logomania.
Shoulder pads on jackets. Yeah, even men's clothing had them. Not a pretty sight.

Always:
Be cool.
Live each day as if it's your last.

Never:
Not cool.
Nag. You'll drive me crazy. I get it, you don't have to say it over and over.

Street Fighter 4 TV Commercial

I. Can't. Freaking. Wait.

Street Fighter II was legendary. Street Fighter Alpha rocked. Street Fighter III was a diamond in the rough (lackluster in New Generation, awesome in Third Strike). This one? Time will tell. Can't wait to get my hands on playing Ryu and Abel!

Is Disney World the happiest place on earth? It sure is.

(Note: Not a paid endorsement.)


Just two weeks ago, me and the family came from an awesome visit to the Disney World parks in Orlando, Florida. This was the highlight of our “vacation” in the US. (I put vacation in double quotes because I’m not leaving the country any time soon, like if the vacation has ended.) The drive to Florida took all of 15 hours, but we chose to split it to two days, stopping for cheap lodging in North Carolina both ways.

We bought a 4-day pass to any park within Disney World, and chose to go to the Magic Kingdom twice. Epcot and Hollywood Studios were the other two stops. We thought of Animal Kingdom as well, but since the park was relatively new, and there weren’t a lot of attractions yet (with the exception of the Safari Trek and Expedition Everest) we decided to just go back the next time we’d head to FL.

Incredible. Each one of the parks was exactly how I remembered them when I was a young boy. They all offered different things and thrills, all of them memorable.

Before I go to the individual parks, let me share a couple of tips first to make your visit there enjoyable.

1. Make judicious use of the Photo Pass system. This is an innovative idea. Instead of lugging around tickets of professionally-taken photographs with you the entire time, Photo Pass gives you an electronic card that you use to view all your photos online. Cool, right? Until you realize that the photos available for viewing are pitifully small, they won’t even look great printed in 2R. And ordering a CD with your photographs cost $125. Highway robbery!

Lesson learned: For each pic the Photo Pass Photographers take, ask them to take another one with your own digital or film camera. It’s free of charge, and you have full, high-resolution images with you.

2. Plan your Fast Pass well. Another great idea. Several rides across all the Disney parks have Fast Pass booths, where you can get a return time ticket in order to bypass falling in line for hours. The catch is you can’t get Fast Passes all at once. For every one Fast Pass ticket you get for a particular ride, there’s a 2-hour wait time before you can get another one.

Lesson learned: Go to the park in the morning and ride the most popular, Fast Pass-enabled rides first, when the lines are shortest. You won’t be able to go through them all in the morning of course, but that’s the point: You’d halve the number of attractions you’d use your Fast Pass privilege for.

3. Bring in food. If you don’t mind making your own subs, hoagies, or sandwiches, bring them with you. (No rice-and-ulam baon! You’ll have a hard time, trust me.) The food’s pricey ($7 for a burger? Highway robbery!), and the lines for the food places gets pretty long during lunch time. There are plenty of drinking fountains everywhere to keep you hydrated without resorting to buying bottled beverages, which start at $2.

Part 2 coming soon!

10 Things Every Filipino Must Do in America

Part 2 of the 2-part series!

6. Use tissue to clean up after a number two
I personally am used to using just toilet paper to clean up—I do it when I have to go do a number two at the mall and whenever I’m not in my house. It’s just that using a tabo has been a welcome alternative when we moved to the Philippines—I preferred doing things this way since I’ve gotten the opportunity to. (I remember the first time I went inside a Philippine bathroom, I had to ask my dad what the bucket was for. He explained how Pinoys do it. Haha. If someone took my photograph right after I found how it’s done, I’m pretty sure it’s one for the books.) But here in the US, not everyone uses a tabo. And that includes even Filipino families—several cousins of mine don’t have ‘em in their bathrooms. So you gotta learn how to do it with toilet paper, kids. It’s more ma-trabaho than a steady stream of water rinsing your you-know-what, but I have to say, it’s a slightly cleaner way of doing things. *cough*pooponyourfingers*cough*

Oh, you can also buy, um, behind cleaners.

I guess the question is, do I still use a tabo now that I’m here? The answer is yes, only when they have it. But I secretly wish every house had a bidet instead.

7. Visit a theme park

Ever been to Enchanted Kingdom? How about Star City or Boom na Boom? Double—even triple—the size of the space these parks occupy, double the number of rides, and you have a good idea of a US theme park.

I can’t really explain why you should visit one, you just have to. There’s all sorts of fun to be experienced by everyone, regardless of age. Or, ganito na lang: Where else can you totally act not your age and no one will give you flak over it? Sure, you have to pay a considerable sum (admission rates on average are $65) but the free pass to be a kid again for 12 hours is well worth it.

8. Become wasteful
If you’re the type who’d remind friends not to leave food in their plates because kids in Africa are starving, be prepared to say this often. I’m still in shock at how much waste this country makes on a daily basis. You get a “side dish” of fries as plentiful as the main course itself, five generous scoops of fried rice for every single-person order at an Asian fast-food restaurant, and the buffets, man, the buffets—there’s so much wasted food there that you can practically just ask for the rejects and you’ll be able to eat for days. Oh, and I’m not just talking about food. People go through, like, two rolls of tissue paper a day with just normal, day-to-day things, like wiping the sink, drying their hands after washing them, whatever. Fortunately, you’ll appreciate the incentives that the government is doing to help curb the mounds of waste the country produces: You can opt for paperless banking, meaning bank statements will only get sent to your e-mail; recycling bins are commonplace (and in some States, like New Jersey, segregating recyclable trash is the law), and groceries are offering several centavos back whenever grocers return or reuse shopping bags. So I guess you only need to “witness” this, and not do it. Think of the environment and the starving kids in Africa, after all.

9. Don’t have rice for a day

Like the humble tabo, having rice at every meal defines a Filipino. Sure, other countries also use rice in varying ways, but only a Pinoy eater asks for rice with a nice piece of steak—as well as mashed potatoes; or will top his rice with chili and not care for the cornbread.

On paper, there’s nothing wrong with this. After all, rice, cornbread, mashed potatoes, and fries are all starchy foods (and thus sources of carbohydrates that balance out the protein from the ulam). It’s just that culturally, something like steak isn’t meant to be eaten with rice. It’s like eating pizza with rice. (And that’ll be taking it too far, even for a Filipino I think.) Part and parcel of immersion to American culture is “pakikibagay,” and this is what you’ll do once you smile and help yourself to mashed potatoes for dinner and not ask for rice.

Curiously, rice isn’t easy to find here, further proving that this country isn’t as big of a rice eater as we are.

10. Make mano
H’wag ka nang mahiya. Walang masama kung magmano ka sa magulang mo o sa nakakatanda pag nakita mo sila. It’s what makes you Filipino. Paki ba ng mga puti kung ano yung ginagawa mo?

(Toilet image from Jupiterimages.com, rice meal image from Yikada/Flickr.com)